


Her Light Returned

by Jaywings



Category: The Dark Crystal (1982), The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (TV)
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, probably an AU of some kind
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-13 15:40:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21496669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaywings/pseuds/Jaywings
Summary: The Crystal is healed, the reformed urSkeks have gone. And, somewhere deep in the bowels of the castle, someone new appears.
Relationships: Jen/Kira (Dark Crystal), Mira/Rian (Dark Crystal)
Comments: 40
Kudos: 61





	1. The End of the Story

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I wrote this fic on kind of a whim, inspired by some ideas I saw being tossed around on Tumblr awhile back. I hope you enjoy it.

She arrived, newly-made, back into the world just as suddenly and completely as she had left it.

Her wings buzzed, first, humming against her back and catching on the floor beneath her. They were alive; fully, wholly alive, a reminder that she was _real_, and _here_, that she was… _she_. She felt them buzz again as though they were living things themselves, desperate to heave her off the ground and into the safety of the air, because there was _danger_ down here, terrible danger, she was in pain, she was… she was…

Where was she?

She sat up slowly, blinking at her surroundings, and realized with a startled little flutter in her chest that she had eyes. Her fingers, which were _real_, curled against the rough stone floor—and she could _feel_ it. She picked up her hands and stared at them, turning them front and back. They were pale, and thin, thinner than she remembered. Her nails were much longer than she tended to keep them. Her eyes stared at them intensely, taking in every little detail—every pore, every crease, every vein, her gaze unwavering as though unable to get enough of it, as though she had never seen her own skin before.

Her unbraided hair tickled her shoulders in long, white-blond sheets. She hadn't worn it loose since she was very young. Reaching her arms up to brush it from her shoulders, she realized with a start that she wasn't wearing anything.

But at least there seemed to be no one around.

Where had she been?

She still wasn't even sure where she _was_. She was sitting, legs curled beneath her and wings folded tightly to her back, in a large stone chamber, surrounded by rubble and discarded objects, and hay strewn across the floor. A hard knot of dread tightened in her chest, causing her breath to hitch. Though she did not remember this place, something terrible had happened here. The room was drenched in nightmares, seeped in darkness. On the very edge of her hearing she thought she could hear screaming—screams of Gelfling—and though she flattened her palms against her ears, she couldn't block it out.

The sounds eased off after a moment, leaving her panting and shivering on the cold stone floor.

She had to get out of here. Being in this room frayed her every nerve, and she knew she wouldn't be able to take it much longer. Besides, she needed answers, and nothing would come of sitting on the floor forever.

Casting her gaze about the room, she spotted a ragged, dust-covered curtain that had torn from its hangings and now lay in a heap by the wall. She pulled herself over to it—her legs felt weak and shaky and she didn't trust them with her weight just yet—and grasped a sharp, broken piece of metal in one hand, hacking at the curtain until she was able to tear off a piece that would cover her comfortably. With a bit of effort she cut a jagged slot in one edge of the cloth that would allow her wings to remain unrestrained. With creeping sense of horror this place had cast over her heart, she did not want her best chance of escape encumbered.

Satisfied enough with her handiwork, she wound the makeshift slip around herself and gave her wings another experimental flutter to be sure they could move. The cloth was scratchy and uncomfortable but it would do.

And now came the hard part.

She braced one hand against the wall and gathered her bare feet under her; she pushed herself upward, clawing her way up the wall with her teeth gritted, fighting inch by inch against the sharp pain and electrifying needles tearing their way up and down both legs. When she had reached her full height she collapsed against the wall and scraped her toes along the rough ground.

She was here. She was alive. And she didn't know how, or why. She couldn't even precisely recall what had happened. There were fleeting glimpses, visions that her mind shied away from like a Grottan from the sunlight—a flash of bright purple, a force that had latched onto her very soul and would not let go, and the Skeksis lords surrounding her, laughing, laughing while she suffered an agony like she could never imagine—

Her legs buckled slightly, her strength faltering, and she almost fell back to the ground.

But there was something else in that memory. There were a pair of eyes locked onto hers, shining with tears, the observer half-hidden in the dark, unnoticed by the lords. The sight of those eyes flooded her body with warmth, a brief respite from the burning cold that had spread through her veins. She remembered nothing after that, nothing but the seething chill finally extinguishing that warmth like a candle flame by an open window, but those eyes… they had held everything she needed in that moment, and everything she needed now, enabling her to slowly pull her hand away from the wall.

She took a step. And another.

With every step her balance became stronger, her posture more confident. She kept one hand clasped at her chest, grasping the hem of her covering, more out of uneasiness than anything else. In her other hand she grasped the bit of sharp metal tightly.

It wasn't until she had set foot across the threshold of the room and into the stone hallway outside that she remembered the room's name: _The Chamber of Life_, the forbidden sanctuary of the Skeksis Scientist. He had a proper name, she remembered, but it slipped from her mind like one of the eels from the bog far to the south.

The Scientist's raspy cackle sounded suddenly in her ear. _"Don't fight."_

He was _right behind her_.

She whirled around, heart hammering, eyes scouring the dark chamber she had just left behind for any hint of movement, strange shapes, flickering shadows, anything. But there was no one there. She was alone.

Shivering, she slowly turned back around, pressing her fingers to her forehead.

_Don't fight_.

_But I didn't fight_, she thought, and a sob caught in her throat. _I never fought, my lords. I did everything you asked_.

Why, why had they done this to her?

What had she done wrong?

Her heart ached, heavy with a sorrow that was more than just her own. Her hand slipped down to cover her mouth and she leaned against the wall, shaking with unshed tears.

She had given her life for the Castle of the Crystal. She had vowed to protect the lords with everything she had. And they, without a thought, had taken it from her.

Had there been others?

Forcibly, she closed her mind to the thought. No sense dwelling on that when she didn't even understand what her own fate had been. It was something she would need to figure out—but in the meantime, she couldn't just stand here, _here_, in the middle of the Castle of the Crystal, home to the very beings who had claimed to be benevolent lords and then snatched her up, and bade her to look upon the poisoned, tortured Crystal until her life was ripped away—

_How am I still alive?_

Another sob wracked her chest. Suddenly, acutely, she yearned for those eyes that had been the last thing she saw, could remember seeing, besides the brilliant, terrible, wonderful, blinding purple light…

His face swam in her mind, the memory indistinct and almost featureless. His name hovered just out of reach on her tongue, tantalizingly close but too slippery to grab, much like the Skeksis lord's. But she knew him, and she knew above all that she must find him, make sure he was all right, because he had seen what the Skeksis had done to her…

Something tugged softly at her heart and she looked up, eyes burning; there was a strange call, almost like a song, that calmed her mind and urged her to continue forward.

_Hush now, child. You are safe_. The meaning was clear, though it came more in a gentle feeling than in words. _Come, come see what has happened_.

A small part of her recoiled. She vividly recalled the Skeksis Scientist calling to her from inside the chamber she had just escaped, beckoning her forward, until she looked upon the Crystal and could not look away.

But this was not like that. She knew instinctively that this call, this beautiful song, held no danger for her. So she pushed away from the wall and followed the summons, up and up through the castle.

_The others will be along soon_.

The feeling embraced her like a lifelong friend and she mentally leaned into it, more grateful than she could say for the reassurance of its company. Yet she frowned slightly.

Others?

As she walked she noticed that the corridors were brighter than she could remember them ever being. With a slight gasp she realized that they were glowing white—huge patches of stone had crumbled away to reveal that the walls were made of gleaming, pure white crystal, so bright that she nearly had to shade her eyes.

If she didn't know where she was, she would have said it was beautiful.

The feeling that still held her close seemed to give her a slight squeeze at that, as though amused. She shook her head at the absurdity of that thought.

She didn't recognize the path she was taking—these corridors had always been forbidden to the Gelfling guards, and she had never quite gotten the nerve to try exploring them alone. It seemed that hours passed while she climbed through the halls and up stairs, the sweet song that called to her heart growing stronger all the while and pulling her along, until she felt that even if she held still she would continue to drift toward it.

At last, she came to a wide doorway far above the Chamber of Life, and here the light was greatest of all.

She saw the Crystal.

But it wasn't the Crystal as she had last seen it, bleeding purple and harshly cracked. This was the Crystal of Truth as it should be, pure white and shining as brightly as one of the three suns. She stood frozen in the doorway, huddled against the wall, her gaze held on its wonder. Tears at last traced their way down her cheeks—tears of joy.

This was the reason she was alive. The Crystal was whole again, and it had brought her back.

Her eyes traveled downward and she gave a start. Standing at the base of the Crystal were, not Skeksis, but two small figures—Gelfling, standing with their arms wrapped around each other's shoulders, staring up at the Crystal with the same intensity as she had not a moment ago.

They were a boy and a girl, probably around the same age she was, and the boy… the boy…

"Rian?" she said, stepping forward, the name springing to the forefront of her mind as though it had always been there. Her voice was wispy, a mere breath in the enormous Crystal Chamber.

But the two Gelfling heard it regardless, their ears twitching backward, and their heads turning to look at her in utter shock.

She studied the boy—it was not Rian, though he held a very similar stature. He was not a castle guard and she was sure she'd never seen him before, though he looked like he might be Stonewood.

Both Gelfling gaped at her as though they were witnessing a ghost. She was not altogether sure that wasn't the case.

"My name is Mira," she said, her own name falling from her tongue easily, though before this moment she hadn't even realized that she'd forgotten it. "Vapran, and guard to the Castle of the Crystal."

She took a deep breath. "Please… can you tell me what has happened?"


	2. The Beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, you guys convinced me. I had wanted the first chapter to be just a one-shot, but people asked for more and I even started getting ideas about it. I also happened to do a character search and saw that there didn't seem to be any Mira-centric fics, besides my own, and that made me sad...
> 
> So here is a second chapter. I don't know if this will be continued, but we can always see, can't we?

_Mira._

Yes, that was her name…

The clear sound of it across the pristine Crystal Chamber rang in her ears like music when the two strangers echoed it back to her. _Mira_… she hadn't heard it in so long.

"_A Gelfling—you're another Gelfling!_"

"_How did you get here?_"

The question was an earnest one, but she had no answer. How could she begin to describe what had happened to her?

However, it seemed she didn't need to. The two Gelfling slid their arms from each other's shoulders to grasp hands instead, and together ran across the room to stop in front of her. The boy reached out as if to embrace her, and she recoiled by instinct, raising the sharp bit of metal she had carried from far below.

The boy stopped with his hand still extended toward her. "Are you all right?"

"I—"

It was strange, to talk. Her tongue was clumsy, like it had forgotten how to form words. She took in the two Gelfling, their eyes wide with concern, and her gaze flicked from them to the shining white Crystal. "We need to get out of here."

"No—no, it's okay," the girl said. She held out her free hand as well, though did not attempt to get any closer. It seemed to be more a placating gesture than anything. "It's all okay now. The Skeksis are gone."

The lords… _gone?_

Her mind whirled. It was impossible. Everyone knew the Skeksis were immortal.

"But how did you get here?" the other girl went on. "Were the Skeksis holding you prisoner?"

She stared at the other girl, light green eyes meeting brown. The girl looked almost Vapran, with her fair skin and white hair, though she displayed none of the culture and grace that the Vapra were raised with. She was strange—as was the boy, who resembled the Stonewood people yet carried no weapons and did not look as if he had ever wielded one.

Perhaps they were both half-clan. Or outcasts, belonging nowhere at all.

"My name is Jen," the boy said, his voice gentle. "And this is Kira. Kira—it sounds like your name, doesn't it?"

Her ears twitched. Before she could say anything, however, a loud voice interrupted from behind, making her jump.

"Gelfling? A third Gelfling?" the voice said. "Hiding, were you? Or only just brought back?"

She turned around quickly to see a stout creature in a red dress with curved horns sticking out from the sides of her head, nearly buried in an unruly mop of gray hair. She had one working eye, though Mira knew with certainty that at one time she had had three.

"Mother Aughra?" Mira whisphered, and fell into a shaky bow.

Mother Aughra clicked her tongue. "Enough of that nonsense. Bowing! Tch! Acting like _I'm_ the important one!" When she reached them, she put her hand on Mira's shoulder. Mira struggled to restrain the impulse to push her off. "I know who you are. It's _you_, Mira. Kind Mira. The first taken, returned to us at last."

_She knows my name..._

"Come over here, Mira," Jen said, motioning toward the shining Crystal of Truth. "By the Crystal. It feels… well, I can't explain it, but it's like it takes all your troubles away."

Her heart seized up. Her breath caught, and the image of Jen and the Crystal swam before her eyes.

_Give the Crystal your fear, your love, your secrets._

Her wings flicked, filling her once again with that urge to get out and away from this place, leave it all behind.

_But these are Gelfling_, she argued. _Gelfling and Mother Aughra, and the Crystal is healed. It told me I was safe…_

The reasoning was sound. Yet she could not shake the feeling that any moment, a looming Skeksis would appear in the doorway and spot them all.

Hesitantly, she pulled away from Aughra and passed Jen and Kira, crossing the room to stand in front of the Crystal. She looked up at it with her hands gripping her upper arms, the crude knife still in her fingers. The Crystal didn't pull on her, this time. Its presence was comforting. Warm. Nothing like the icy chill that had filled her soul the last time she had gazed on it this closely.

Perhaps the strange boy was right. She closed her eyes and mentally leaned into its embrace.

"Gelfling!" Mother Aughra suddenly barked, causing Mira to turn quickly with a trill of fear. But the Thra-Mother was talking to Jen. "Go and find something for this one to wear! You can't let your fellow Gelfling stand around wearing a mangy old curtain, can you?"

"Take something?" Jen asked, a surprised note to his voice. "But Aughra, can we _do_ that?"

He spoke to the _maudra Thra_ as though they were old friends. Exactly who _were _these Gelfling?

Mother Aughra sniffed. "Pah! Take what you like. Skeksis won't be needing any of it anymore, will they? Castle is yours now, anyway. UrSkeks left you the Crystal, left you the castle, didn't they?"

_UrSkeks_. Mira shivered at the name, though she had never heard it before.

Jen didn't leave immediately, focusing his eyes on the Crystal before tearing them away and looking at Kira next to him, whose hand he still grasped. He hesitated before uttering an uncertain, "Well…"

"It's all right—" Mira tried to say, offering him a way out if he wanted it, but Aughra waved her off.

"Oh, send the Podlings after the clothes, then!" she said impatiently. "Podlings know this castle better than any of us. And have them bring plenty of robes to the Chamber of Life while we're at it!"

The two other Gelflings gaped at her, Jen gasping, "Podlings?"

"_Kira!_"

The exuberant shout echoed through the chamber; all four of them looked up to see a group of Podlings tumble into the room, bouncing toward Kira and gathering around her. She seemed just as excited to see them, crying out in joy and embracing each one in turn without letting go of Jen, jabbering away to them in their own language. Mira had never before heard a Gelfling speak so fluently in the Podling tongue. It was a rare skill, as most Gelfling never bothered to learn it.

The group was also joined by a yapping fizzgig, which rolled up to Kira's feet and jumped up at her. She gave another happy cry at seeing it, scooping the animal up one-handed and hugging it to her chest.

Mira suddenly felt hollow, inexplicably alone. But then, she realized, though the Podlings greeted Jen in a friendly manner, they did not embrace him as family. Maybe he had no one, either. No one but Kira.

Inescapably, she thought of Rian, as well as her own family back in Ha'rar. Where were they now?

Why had these two seemed so shocked to see another Gelfling?

"I'll send them to find some clothes," Kira said at last, and relayed the information to the Podlings. They looked at each other, discussing something briefly, before all dashing off in different directions.

"Now I'm sure the three of you have much to talk about," Aughra said. "I'll leave you to it. But make it _fast_, Gelfling. We need to prepare! One comes back, others will too, all in the same state! Hmph!"

She bustled out of the chamber with no further explanation, red dress flapping around her feet. Mira was left alone with the two clanless strangers, though they didn't feel entirely like strangers anymore.

"We're so happy to see you, you know," Kira said, still cradling her fizzgig in one arm. "We thought we were—" She broke off and glanced at Jen, a crease of worry between her brows. But she didn't need to finish that sentence.

_We thought we were the last ones._

What had the Skeksis done?

"What did you mean," Mira said to Kira, still trying to get used to the sound and feeling of her own voice, "when you said the lords were gone?"

"Lords?" Both Jen and Kira appeared uncomprehending, which seemed extremely odd.

Mira nodded with a flicker of uncertainty. "The Skeksis."

They were silent for a moment.

"I don't…" Kira glanced at Jen again. "I didn't see what happened. We've been sharing memories."

"I couldn't describe it if I tried," Jen said, shaking his head. "But… maybe I could show you?"

He held out his free hand to her once more.

_Show me._

_You mean, dreamfast?_

_Yes! I mean… if you wanted to?_

_Well… I do, if you do._

_Yes._

Mira backed away from him, feeling as though she were shrinking in on herself, and shook her head vigorously. "I can't. I can't. I'm sorry. I can't."

Jen closed his fingers and pulled his hand back, looking a little disappointed.

"Then… maybe we can just talk about it," Kira suggested. She indicated the floor where they were standing. "Why don't we sit here, and tell each other everything?"

They sat, Jen and Kira together and Mira sitting across from both of them. They started with their story—it was a relief to know that they understood how little she wanted to talk.

They told the story of a boy who was raised by mysterious, but kind, four-armed creatures who read the signs of the land and skies and sent him on a quest of which he knew little. How he climbed the High Hill to meet with Mother Aughra and find the lost shard of the Crystal that had been shattered long ago.

They told about a girl rescued by Podlings, who learned to speak with all the creatures of Thra, who spent her life hiding from attacks by the Skeksis and their monstrous "Garthim" and who longed to see someone who looked like her. How the two of them found each other at last, one showing the other the joy of riding landstriders, and the other revealing the existence of words that stay. How they journeyed to the castle, not to fight the Skeksis, but to _save_ them, and all of Thra with them.

How Kira, too, had been bound in front of the Crystal and felt her life draining away, though she had been able to break free—and Lord skekTek the Scientist, the one Mira had most feared since awakening back in his terrible chamber, had fallen down the shaft into the Lake of Fire by his own doing, and was no more.

How the third Great Conjunction had come at last and the Crystal was healed, but Kira was killed in the process, stabbed in the back by Lord skekZok the Ritual Master.

The fact that she was sitting here now, looking alive and well, did not confuse Mira as much as it might once have. After all, the other Gelfling girl was not the only one to have been killed by the Skeksis and then brought back by means of the Crystal.

What followed was something that neither of the others could articulate well—Kira because she had witnessed only the tail end of it, and Jen because he had been so dazzled, the mere memory of it took his words away. Mira came to understand that at the moment of the Great Conjunction, the Skeksis had become something… _more_. They had joined with the four-armed creatures that had raised Jen, their "other halves," to become something else entirely.

_UrSkeks_.

The creatures were the embodiments of light, with long limbs and faces that were difficult to make out. But they had spoken words of kindness, and brought Kira back to life, betraying no sign of the beaked horrors they had been mere minutes ago. Then they had vanished in a stream of light, leaving Jen and Kira to care for the Crystal and all of Thra themselves.

The Skeksis Lords of the Crystal truly had gone.

And so had the rest of the Gelfling race.

Mira sat with her arms wrapped around her knees, reflecting.

_Rian._

_Gurjin._

"What about you?" Kira asked softly. With great care, looking ready to pull back the moment Mira showed any discomfort, she reached out and placed her hand on top of Mira's. But she kept her mind in check and did not attempt to dreamfast. "What happened to you? Do you want to talk about it?"

A cloud of shame descended over Mira. After hearing their stories, it seemed almost insulting that she was so reluctant to share her own. However, she realized she did not even have much to tell. She was not a hero.

Hers was the story of a girl who never took her job as a guard seriously, who liked to goof around and go on adventures where there might be danger, but only when she was around her friends. Who was afraid to speak up to authority but was deeply, truly in love with a boy that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. The one who invited her on harmless pranks and made her laugh, who raced her around the castle and never caught on when she occasionally let him win.

Hers was the story of a girl who found herself in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and had her life ripped away by the very beings she had been tasked to protect.

These Gelfling heroes wouldn't want to hear that story.

She was saved from having to respond by some of the Podlings returning, bearing bundles of robes and cloth between them and setting it all down near her. Most of it was Skeksis garments, which she handled with distaste, but there were some Gelfling tunics and leggings in the pile as well.

She would not let herself think about what might have happened to their owners. Instead she simply gathered together an outfit and stood, excusing herself to go change; yet she hesitated, unwilling to leave their sides.

Kira gave her a warm smile, though it had a tinge of sadness. "Go on," she urged.

Jen nodded. "We'll be right here."

Taking a deep breath, Mira nodded back, and found an empty hallway that was nearby but out of sight. She changed quickly, the open back of the tunic giving her wings the freedom to move and also fold tightly along her back like a cloak. Everything fit comfortably, which was a relief. She dropped the curtain she'd been wearing and left it in a pile on the floor, glad to be rid of it, and peered back into the chamber.

Jen and Kira were sitting with the Podlings on the floor by the white Crystal, still holding hands—they hadn't released their hold on each other since Mira had met them. They were talking, and laughing, and crying. The Podlings had been trapped here for a long time, Mira guessed, and according to the story, these were Kira's adopted family.

As she watched, Jen looked up and beckoned for her to come join them again. Like she was one of them, even though they had just met.

Mira let slip the tiniest smile, and dropped the sharp metal piece on top of the discarded curtain. She would not need it here.

This was a strange new world, a place without the Skeksis overlords that she had looked up to all her life. A world without her duties, her purpose. A world without Rian. Without Gurjin and her friends. Without her family. It was a tragedy that she knew she would never be free of—and nor did she want to, really. For if she didn't remember them, then who would?

She had thought that her story ended when she had been made to gaze into the darkened Crystal. Even waking up, being brought back, had felt wrong, as if her presence were a tacked-on page in a book that had already been finished.

But maybe it wasn't the end, she thought, as she crossed the room once again to sit down with the others. Not if she didn't want it to be. An interruption, perhaps, or the conclusion of one chapter only to form the beginning of another.

Perhaps it could even be a good one.


	3. The Others

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A third chapter! This one may be a bit strange. I hope it's turned out okay anyway...
> 
> And I want to think BabyCharmander for beta-reading all these chapters, because I don't think I've done that yet.

_The others are coming_.

The call was like a gentle nudge, a slight pull. Mira's head shot up, her half-finished braid slipping from her fingers to unravel against her shoulder. She glanced up at the pure white Crystal, still hovering unchanged only feet away from her in the center of the room. Jen and Kira were still nearby as well, curled up together in sleep, some of the Skeksis garments brought in by the Podlings folded around them as covers and pillows. They did not wake—perhaps they had not heard the call.

Mira felt closer to the two of them than she would have thought possible. She didn't know how long they had sat together, eating food supplied by joyful Podlings and simply talking: Jen describing his life with the mysterious Mystics, Kira telling stories about the Podlings she called family, and even teaching both Mira and Jen some Podling words. Mira shared a few things of her own, though she could not speak everything. The other two Gelflings seemed to understand her predicament to some degree, however, somehow knowing that she was from a time before the Skeksis had ravaged the world. Mercifully, they did not dwell on the subject.

"_Tell us about one of your days, Mira,"_ _Kira had said kindly, when Mira was so reluctant to share her own story._ "_One of the normal ones_._"_

"_We don't know anything about what it was like… before," Jen added. "What the Gelfling were like."_

So she told them, the memories merely trickling back at first before coming to the forefront of her mind in a flood as she continued to speak. She told them of the day before the world had disappeared. Waking up with the other guards and going on morning patrol, receiving a letter from her mother (one of the few who could write in her family), sneaking off for a picnic lunch by the river with Rian and nearly getting caught on the way back in, saved only by Gurjin coming to distract the guards at the door at the very last second with a ridiculous story about several swoothu loose in the castle, drunk on fermented peachberries.

She had laughed a little at that, and cut herself off in surprise, falling silent. How could she talk about Gurjin and_ laugh?_

Gradually, the Podlings with them had drifted off, and Kira's fizzgig had crawled over to Mira to curl up in a tight ball in her lap. Jen and Kira tried to stay up with her, but they were both clearly dropping with exhaustion, and had finally given in. Mira was left sitting alone in the vast Crystal Chamber, reflecting—she had been the first Gelfling to have seen the Crystal of Truth in a thousand trine. And now she was one of the last.

She wondered, vaguely, where Mother Aughra had gone; it was unnatural to sit alone at night, hearing no voices from other guards or their gentle (or sometimes not-so-gentle) snoring. It was all too easy to remember what had happened.

Time passed in silence, but she did not feel at all inclined to sleep. Part of her felt she had missed enough of the world already. Another part—smaller, more distant, one that she fought not to listen to—was afraid that if she closed her eyes, allowed her mind to drift, she would fade along with it, and once again cease to be.

_The others are coming..._

Mira shook her head, focusing on the Crystal again.

What others? Aughra had said something similar, something about "others" arriving. Mira did not hear the Crystal's call in words, exactly, but there was a feeling… a feeling that soon, someone would come… But who, and from where?

Slowly she turned her head to look at the doorway through which she herself had ventured mere hours ago, clad in a ragged piece of curtain and blinking at the pure light of the true Crystal. A spark of hope lit in her chest, along with a cold prickle of horror. Did she dare wonder? Could it be…?

She couldn't lie to herself. Whoever the others were, and she had a sneaking suspicion, she knew where they would be coming from. And she knew that something was calling for her to go and meet them.

Her stomach lurched, her mouth going dry. She couldn't go back down there, not back to the Scientist's chamber, the ill-named Chamber of Life. She couldn't venture back down into the darkness when all she wanted was to stay up here and bathe in the light.

The call hummed at the back of her mind, but it was not insistent. She knew instinctively that she did not have to obey. If she refused, it would silence itself. And she would have to refuse. After all, she _could not_ go back there. Could she?

Mira carefully set the fizzgig aside and stood, her ears pricked and her wings giving a worried flutter, though her guard's training allowed her to steady her breathing and take a determined stance that did not betray emotion.

She would need to find a lantern.

* * *

The walk back down to the Chamber seemed infinitely longer than the path she had taken to the light. She carried a lantern with her—it was old, almost entirely rusted over as though it had not been used in many trine, and the light it put out was hazy, but it hardly even seemed necessary. More of the stone had broken away from the walls to reveal their true structure of glimmering white crystal, bathing the corridors in a warm, pleasant light.

_It's all right_, she told herself with every footstep. _It's all right, it's all right, he's gone. He's _gone_._

She allowed her feet to follow the pull, heading deeper and deeper into the castle, though she remembered the way well enough without it. When at last she reached the large doorway into the Scientist's chamber, she lurched to a stop, and gripped the lantern with trembling hands.

_He's dead_.

Light glowed softly from inside the room, though the walls were still stone—perhaps the walls this far down had not been constructed from crystal at all. She took in a breath and headed through the door, not having any idea what to expect.

To her immense surprise, the debris had been cleared from the center of the room and lanterns had been lit. The gaping window in the wall, the place where the poisoned-purple Crystal had been chained and pulled down, still glowed with orange fire from far below and set Mira's nerves on edge. In front of it were three bulky objects that had been covered in blankets, tablecloths, and whatever else that could be found to hide them. She didn't know what they were—she hadn't taken notice of them when she had come to be in this room earlier. Someone must have put up those coverings recently, though, as they were not covered in stone dust or other rubble.

A small group of Podlings had gathered around the walls. They looked up and waved at Mira's approach, calling out greetings that Kira had just taught her. For the first time, she wished she truly spoke their language.

"_Doza aminia_," she said back, a faint smile flickering on her face as she set down her lantern. "Excuse me, I- I don't speak Podling."

The Podlings chattered excitedly, not seeming at all bothered by her lack of understanding. Two came forward and took her hands—she stiffened with a sharp intake of breath and her wings partially unfurled, but they didn't notice—and drew her further into the room. One Podling pointed proudly to a pile of clothes gathered by one of the lanterns, and Mira nodded.

"This is looking really nice," she said, forcing herself to try to relax. This corner of the chamber, with the softly glowing lanterns and the camaraderie of the Podling group, had somehow become almost comforting. It would certainly be a better welcome than she had received. If only she didn't have to look at that window.

The Podlings sat back down in a loose circle around the center of the room, releasing Mira's hands and beckoning her to sit with them. The only thing to do now was wait. But for what, Mira didn't let herself consider.

It didn't seem possible that she could wish so desperately for something she thought her soul might shatter, yet dread it so utterly that she thought she'd rather die than see it happen.

They did not have to wait long.

In the time it took Mira to blink, a wingless figure slipped into existence, curled up on the floor. He stirred slightly and Mira jumped to her feet, her heart pounding.

"Gurjin?" she whispered, but it wasn't him. The newcomer was a Drenchen, certainly, but he had a different build from Gurjin. When he raised his head, a haunted look in his eyes, she recognized him. "Rumel!"

At the sound of his name he jerked and stared at her, his usually dark, weathered face gaunt and drained of color just as she imagined hers was.

He was another guard at the castle. She knew him by sight and name but they had never spoken. They were hardly more than strangers. And yet, the presence of someone familiar was almost more than she could bear, and her heart broke for him.

So it was true. She had been the first, but she was not the last.

"M… _Mira?_" Rumel said, his voice a choked rasp, and he added in wonder, "You're... _alive_."

And Mira began to realize why the Crystal had called her back here. She pulled out a shirt and pants for Rumel, politely turning her back while some of the Podlings helped him into the outfit, and then she looped her arm under his shoulders and helped him to stand dazedly on his feet. He was trembling violently.

"It's all right," she said gently, letting Rumel brace himself against the wall. "We're safe. We're all safe now."

"We're not! Not here! Where's Lord Scientist?!" He dragged his eyes from a frantic search of the room to stare at his shaking hands as if he'd never seen them before. "I remember… I… we lost…"

His shoulders shook; he sank to his knees, and sobbed. Mira hesitantly placed a hand on his shoulder and he automatically leaned into her touch.

"He's gone, Rumel. None of the Skeksis are coming back."

He didn't seem to hear her.

_It's not fair…_

"Mira!" one of the Podlings called. She turned to see three new figures stirring on the floor in the center of the chamber—two boys and a girl. Mira gave Rumel's shoulder a squeeze, only hoping that could communicate enough, and followed the Podlings as they rushed to grab more clothes. A couple of the Podlings left the group to sit with Rumel, talking to him in soothing tones.

Clutching a garment she'd found in the pile, Mira reached the Spriton girl first, helping her into a sitting position and wrapping it around her. When Mira was able to see her face, she identified the girl immediately.

"Selfot," she said firmly, and the other Gelfling blinked as a light of recognition flickered in her eyes. She stared at Mira.

"But you were dead," Selfot whispered.

Mira and Selfot had slept in the same barracks and occasionally sat with each other at breakfast. When Selfot's father had died, Mira had volunteered to cover her shift.

"I'm back, Selfot," Mira said quietly. "And you are, too."

Next to them, a Podling was helping the newly-arrived Stonewood boy to sit up. Mira's heart skipped a beat—but he was too tall, his face too long.

"Selfot! _Mira!_" the boy croaked, staring at them with wide, disbelieving eyes. "But I thought… Gelfling returned to Thra…"

"We're not dead, Kensir," Mira said, and at the sound of his name Kensir looked deeply shaken.

He was another guard that Mira had spoken little to, but she knew that he had often been stationed by the castle doors and he tended to the Landstrider mounts, always giving them treats against orders.

The other boy to have appeared, a young Spriton, _screamed_.

Everyone jumped badly. The boy had his eyes closed, hands pressed to his face, his throat stretched in an unending, keening shriek. Mira rushed over to him—Rumel the Drenchen, as the only other Gelfling who'd managed to stand, stifled his tears and stumbled toward them as well.

"Lant!" Selfot, the Spriton girl, said, her voice pained. She made to stand, but didn't seem able to summon the strength.

Lant was one of the youngest guards, having come to the castle only a few unum ago (by Mira's own timeline, not this one, she realized). Though she wasn't sure of his exact age, he almost looked as though he couldn't be more than a childling. His eyes flew open but remained unfocused; Mira doubted that he was seeing the rest of them at all, and that he was seeing only the ruined Chamber of Life.

Mira crouched beside him, but did not touch him. "Lant?"

The young guard's screams died, but his expression remained unchanged, his mouth gaping and his eyes still unseeing. Rumel reached them, kneeling beside Mira but looking as unsure of what to do as Mira was. Podlings joined them as well, draping a cloak over him and continuing to murmur soothingly in their own language.

Three more of them helped Selfot to her feet and led her over to the little gathering, where she knelt in front of Lant and took one of his hands. Bowing her head, she closed her eyes. And gradually, the boy's breathing calmed, his eyes fluttering closed.

They were dreamfasting.

_I remember everything about that night. I was so nervous…_

_I could tell._

With a sharp intake of breath, Mira got back to her feet, drawing away from them. She looked around for the others—Rumel had helped Kensir, the Stonewood boy, to dress and stand, and they were being given steaming bowls of stew by the Podlings.

"I- I can't believe you're alive, Mira," Kensir said, stumbling closer to her and holding his bowl close to his chest. "You're alive, and we- we never knew…"

"I wasn't," Mira said. Her heart pounded, a sense of cold creeping down her back. "I've only just come back, just like all of you."

"Back from where?" Rumel the Drenchen's face still looked pale, his eyes bloodshot. "Back from where, where have we been?"

"Far away," Selfot breathed. Her eyes were still closed, lost in the dreamfast, but her ears twitched as though she was listening. "We were all far away."

"No…" Lant moaned, his face convulsing slightly as he drew the cloak more tightly around himself. "_No…_"

Mira sat on the cold stone floor near him and indicated for Kensir and Rumel to do the same. "What do you remember?" she asked them. "Can you talk about it? It's all right if you can't."

The two boys both looked at each other, and Kensir's gaze wandered to the bulky covered objects. "Chairs… we were strapped down by our wrists…"

Rumel swallowed hard. "We saw the Crystal—the Crystal of Truth, Mira, the _Crystal_—but they were abusing it, they were hitting it with lightning, I could hear the crackling—"

"It was the Skeksis lords, they were waiting for us, I don't know how they _knew_… how did they know?"

"We didn't stand a chance." Rumel's body shook with barely-restrained sobs again.

"We should have listened to Rian from the beginning." Kensir stared down at his stew.

An icy claw closed over Mira's heart.

There was a question that burned inside her, a thought that had plagued her since she had first realized that there had been others, and she almost didn't dare ask. It was a wonderful, selfish, terrible thought, because if Rian came back, it would mean that he had suffered the same fate she had.

But it would also mean she'd see him again.

"What happened to him?" she asked at last. "Do you know what happened to Rian?"

But they didn't answer, merely looked away or stirred the food in their bowl, and she understood.

As far as they knew, Rian was gone.

* * *

Gelfling guards continued to arrive throughout the night, tended to by Mira and the seemingly tireless Podlings.

Some were confused, fearful, unable to understand how or why they were alive. Others arrived screaming, just as the young Spriton guard had done, the sound tearing from their throats; Selfot, who had remained behind with Mira, knelt with each one to dreamfast, and eventually they calmed enough to take in their surroundings.

Still others returned to the world angry. _Furious_. Once they were dressed and able to walk they took it upon themselves to push aside any offered food and storm through the castle hunting for the lords, but of course did not find them.

Likely roused by the commotion, Jen and Kira turned up in the chamber long before dawn, looking at the newcomers with their faces shining with tears. They greeted each Gelfling in turn, laughing with startled joy, bringing some of the new arrivals fully into the present at last.

Mira sat in the hall outside the chamber with a Stonewood girl named Nayse, to whom she had never spoken before, sipping from a bowl of soup that a Podling had brought her. She found she was famished, even though it hadn't been long since she'd last eaten.

"We rose up against the lords," Nayse was explaining to Mira, idly stirring her own soup. "They'd killed Captain Ordon and even... All-Maudra Mayrin."

"No…" For a moment, Mira seemed to be detached from her body, floating; it felt as though splinters of glass had pierced her heart. _The captain… the All-Maudra..._

Nayse nodded slowly, and she continued. "The entire guard decided to fight back. Or at least, that's what we thought, but one of us must have betrayed us all. If I find out who it was and they come back..." Her hand gripped her spoon tightly enough to bleach her knuckles. "The lords were waiting for our attack. They stopped our rebellion and hunted us all down. I was dragged to this chamber by my hair."

The Stonewood ran a hand through her hair as though she could still feel someone gripping it. Her eyes flicked to the empty, gaping window that led to the fiery shaft below the Crystal. "...I don't suppose anyone's told you..."

"Told me what?" Mira placed her bowl on the floor and hugged her knees to her chest, her loose hair tumbling down to her waist. It was a childish pose, one that until today she hadn't assumed in many trine, but she supposed it didn't really matter anymore.

"I suppose they're trying to avoid it." Nayse tugged at her cloak, which she had opted to drape over her shoulders and cover her wings. Mira's own wings rustled uncomfortably at the mere thought. "I don't know if I should tell you, either. Maybe it's better if you don't know."

Mira squeezed her eyes shut, burying her chin in her arms. "It's Rian, isn't it? He's dead. Actually dead, not... drained."

_Drained_.

It was what the others had called their shared experience. The word made Mira's skin crawl, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up.

"I don't know. He might be." Nayse's head bowed. "He was still on the run when we were all caught, spreading the word of what the lords had done to you. But I heard the Hunter was after him, and the stories… they say he never fails to catch his prey. And I'm sorry, Mira. But… it gets worse."

Mira's stomach clenched. Worse? How could it get worse? Everyone knew the stories of the Hunter. No one knew who or what it was—they only knew that the Hunter chased its prey without remorse, and without fail.

"When you disappeared, Mira, Rian vanished too. None of us knew what could have happened. You both missed your shifts, you missed role call. Whispered rumors started to circulate, but no one knew what to believe, and then…" She heaved a sigh, and turned her face away. "Lord Chamberlain appeared and told us what we thought was the truth. He told us that Rian murdered you."

Her heart stopped.

"Later it was said that Gurjin was involved, too. That he and Rian conspired to steal a treasure from the lords, and when you found out, they killed you. Of course, no one questioned what they could have done with your body, but if someone's already going to commit such an unspeakable act then it doesn't take a lot of imagination to theorize on what they might have done to cover their tracks…

"But Rian escaped the castle, and Gurjin disappeared. I think the lords killed him."

The Stonewood Gelfling said all of this so bluntly, so matter-of-fact, as though her words hadn't brought Mira's world, already tottering on a shaky foundation after shattering once, back down around her head.

_Liars. Thieves. Murderers._

It was all she could think of them. To have stolen her life away, and then to turn around and state that Rian had killed her in cold blood—_Rian_, whose anguished face was the last thing she had seen as the corrupted Crystal tore her apart, unable to do anything as he watched her die…

Her heart started beating again, but it seemed out of time, as though it had been torn through the middle.

Mira stood abruptly, accidentally knocking her bowl and spilling soup onto the floor. "And you believed them, didn't you?"

"I'm sorry," Nayse said again, but her voice was flat.

"He was from your clan," Mira said. "You owed it to him to believe _him_."

Nayse's eyes narrowed. "I owe nothing to murderers and traitors."

"Rian was not a murderer."

"I didn't know that at the time. You were gone, Mira. What else were we supposed to think?"

Mira didn't answer that. She aimed a sharp kick at her bowl and showered the other Gelfling in cold soup to a startled gasp, then left before Nayse could say anything else, pushing through the corridor until she was out of her sight.

_He told us that Rian murdered you_.

Around her, everyone was reuniting, crying out each other's names, shedding tears, embracing, sharing memories. They were all guards from the Castle of the Crystal. The Skeksis had not spared one.

Mira found it hard to breathe, watching them. Every one of these Gelflings had known. Every one of them had believed the lie.

_I think it's past time my father had to listen to a few stories about his son_.

There were certainly stories now. Listening to the talk around her, she realized that Rian's name came up a lot, along with discussion about the lords. Despite the rejoiceful atmosphere, no one seemed convinced that the Skeksis would not return.

The world seemed to spin around her, and she backed into a wall lest she stumble into someone. She scrubbed at her face, though she had shed no tears. It didn't seem _possible_.

Just like everything else that had happened.

"Mira!" someone called. She looked up to see that the Drenchen, Rumel, had returned, and was beckoning her back to the chamber. "Mira, someone needs you—"

She shook herself. She would need to figure this out later, on her own. Right now, Gelflings were still appearing, and she needed to be there for them. Mira hurried back through the crowd and into the chamber, where she stopped.

At the center of the room a newly-arrived Vapran girl had pushed herself into a sitting position; someone had wrapped a cloak around her shoulders. Mira took a shuddering step forward, her eyes wide.

"Brir…?" She couldn't keep the tremble out of her voice.

Brir was her neighbor in Ha'rar. They had come to work at the castle together.

She knelt down beside her friend and placed a hand on her shoulder; Brir cringed away, until her eyes fell on Mira's face with a look of utter shock.

"_Mira?_" she gasped. She closed her eyes and shook her head. "It's not enough for the Crystal to take my life, it has to- it has to _also_ show me…?"

Mira pulled her close, her arms wrapped around Brir's shoulders, shaking. "Brir! We're not dead. We're alive. We've come back, both of us, and everyone else, we're all coming back... I'm sorry, Brir. I'm so, so sorry…"

The other girl attempted a watery smile. "Sorry for what? You were only m- murdered…"

Her expression crumbled, and she began crying into Mira's shoulder, tears soaking the sleeve of her tunic.

"You shouldn't have been here!" Mira said, squeezing her eyes shut. "I wanted to serve as a guard all my life. I made you come with me…"

"You didn't make me. I d-decided to come," Brir said. "It's not your fault."

"But it _is!_" Mira shuddered. "The Skeksis took me because I was in the catacombs. They took everyone else because you had an uprising after they _drained _me. They hunted down Rian because he saw them do it…"

_It's my fault._

The weight of it all seemed to crash over her all at once, like a tidal wave, and she was drowning. She caved inwards, a flood of tears raining down her face, until she realized that Brir was holding her up as much as she held Brir up.

Trembling, she placed her hand on Brir's. _I loved him._

_I know you did, _her friend's voice came back.

_It's not fair. None of this is fair._

_It's not. Please, please don't blame yourself, Mira, it's not your fault. _Brir gave an audible sob. _Mira, I believed those things the lords said about you and Rian. I'm so sorry…_

_And that's not _your_ fault._

Suddenly, she wasn't sitting on the cold stone floor anymore; she had fallen into a dreamfast.

It was a beautiful morning. The first Brother sat high in the sky and a slight wind stirred her hair, carrying with it the scent of the river and blooming flowers. She was walking along the bridge to the Castle of the Crystal, Brir by her side, talking about nothing in particular.

It was their first day, she realized. This was a time when she had only ever seen two or three of the lords, and never up close. It was the day she had first met Rian, but hours before.

She remembered exactly how she had felt that day. The whole world had opened up to her, it seemed. New people to meet, new places to explore, adventures waiting around every corner! It had been her childhood dream, to go to the castle.

Mira marveled at the memory. She walked with Brir to meet the guards at the doors, exchanging introductions and a few nervous jokes with them—after all, they were equals now. One of those guards would end up becoming something of a mentor figure to Mira, before he perished in an Arathim skirmish. The other would retire home to his family within the trine.

The two friends sat together, heads bowed, crying silently, stepping through time in their memories. One of them was even dreaming of music.

No, Mira realized; the airy notes of a well-played firca were coming from the external world, accompanied by voices. With her eyes closed she couldn't see who was playing, but it sounded as though everyone in the room were singing softly.

"_Tsian oo as ae oo-oo am_

_Bez a-a-a, puy-um tsa_

_Tsian tse a-oo as ae oo-oo am_

_Bez a-a-a, puy-um tsa_

_Num mi-ami oo-a-be_

_Tso-o-o-am be-na-ub"_

It was an ancient song, one shared by all the clans—usually sung at ceremonies to honor the noblest of their dead.

Dimly, Mira was aware of other Gelflings sitting down around them, some laying a hand on a shoulder, others joining hands with hers and Brir's, sharing their own memories with them. Mira witnessed brief moments of strangers' lives—marriages, births, first flights, their first day as a guard—but most of all, the family and friends they had lost.

"_Tsian-oo-as-ae oo-oo-am_

_Bez a-a-a puy-um tsa_

_Nu mi-ami oo-a-be_

_Tso-o-o-am be-na-ub"_

_Rian. Gurjin. _Her friends and her love.

_All-Maudra Mayrin. Princess Seladon. Princess Tavra. Princess Brea. _The Maudren family of the Vapra. _Captain Ordon._

_Mother. Father. Jina…_

She had never even gotten to see her younger sister's wings sprout.

This was what the Skeksis had striven to destroy, Mira realized. Putting the clans against each other, keeping the life-giving Crystal of Truth far from their sight, and finally using it to drain their lives away. The Gelfling were strongest together, and always had been.

The Skeksis had tried to wipe them out, and had succeeded only in making them stronger. Mira could see that now. United as one, they could overcome anything.

Perhaps, with time, they could even overcome this.


End file.
